Firefox 2.0.0.8 Removes Vulnerabilities

Several vulnerabilities in Firefox allow remote attacks on 2.x versions: updating to 2.0.0.8 closes the gaps.

Mozilla Firefox before 2.0.0.8 and SeaMonkey before 1.1.5, when running on Linux systems with gnome-vfs support, might allow remote attackers to read arbitrary files on SSH/sftp servers that accept key authentication by creating a web page on the target server, in which the web page contains URIs with smb: or sftp: schemes that access other files from the server (CVE-2007-5337, MFSA 2007-34). To exploit the vulnerability, the attacker has to entice users to a manipulated website on the same server. Websites written in XUL can hide their title bars (MFSA 2007-33, CVE-2007-5334), thus opening up a vector for phishing or spoofing attacks. An overview and more details on the vulnerabilities is available from Secunia.

The Firefox developers themselves view the fact that an attacker can exploit the XPC Native Wrapper script object and inject Javascript code when a user surfs to a Javascript page, and then execute the code with the logged on user’s privileges (MFSA 2007-35, CVE-2007-5338). Some Firefox and Javascript engine crashes pointed to memory corruption, which an attacker might be able to use to execute malicious code.

All of these vulnerabilities have been removed in version 2.0.0.8. The new version is available as a download from the Mozilla page. The last digit in the Firefox version number indicates the fix. The previous update to 2.0.0.7 is from mid-September 2007 and closed the Quicktime vulnerability. The first 2.0 version of Firefox was released in October 2006.

Following security fixes for Firefox, Camino & Co, the developers of the Thunderbird email client have now taken steps to remove known vulnerabilities, closing down five security holes, one of which was and classified as critical.